


Good Results

by destiny919



Category: Girl Genius (Webcomic)
Genre: "too unrealistic. try bondage instead", Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Paris, Klaus Wulfenbach's A+ Parenting, M/M, Slow Burn, listen i just want my boys to be happy and actually communicate, or at least it would be, violetta hasn't appeared yet but if i write more she definitely will, well maybe they'll fukcing do that too
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-15
Updated: 2017-12-15
Packaged: 2019-02-15 06:00:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,146
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13024740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/destiny919/pseuds/destiny919
Summary: "Gil?"Tarvek blurted out.Gilgamesh Holzfaller had already stood up. "Tarvek," he said blankly. They spoke again at the same time."Why didn't you ever reply to my letters?"





	Good Results

**Author's Note:**

> So, this is the first chapter of an AU which I came up with and wrote a long time ago. I do have plans for the rest of it, and if enough people want, I could write more. 
> 
> Title is just plucking two words out of Tarvek's brief tale of their time in Paris. And omitting the part about how there "never" were any. Nothing but good results here, lads.

"So what do you think of my father's city, _cherie_?"

"There aren't words," Tarvek said honestly. Because his greatest praise for Paris would be in terms of _away from my horrible family and their devotion to the Other_.

"I know, its beauty is enough to render anyone speechless!" Colette declared. "But the true beauty is in its _people_. Parisians and visitors alike. Let me introduce you to my friends!"

"I'd be honored." Tarvek leaned down smoothly and kissed her hand. She giggled, but there was a bit of steel in her eye. Well, Colette Voltaire _was_ the Master's daughter. And surely anyone friends with her would be good people to get to know.

"We will be meeting them at a cafe on the Rue des Nuages en Forme de Champignon."

 _Street of Mushroom Clouds. Promising._ "Lead the way."

Colette hailed a hansom cab, one of those led by two of the Master's famous clank horses. "They are two excellent gentlemen from the University. One of them is especially...brilliant."

Tarvek didn't miss the way "brilliant" obviously meant several other things. One of them was undoubtedly "spark." Here in Paris, free and surrounded by culture, even he couldn't help hoping for the best, for someone who lived up to Colette's adjective. He hadn't met anyone, not even in his own family, who could match his wits. Not in more than ten years, not since -

"Here we are!" Colette jumped out of the hansom daintily, while Tarvek climbed out in a more sedate manner. She led the way inside the small but bustling cafe, towards a table in the back with a good view out the windows.

Tarvek caught sight of a very fluffy head of light-brown hair.

"Prince Tarvek Sturmvoraus, this is -"

 _"Gil?"_ Tarvek blurted out.

Gilgamesh Holzfaller had already stood up. "Tarvek," he said blankly.

They spoke again at the same time.

"Why didn't you ever write me back?"

"Why didn't you ever reply to my letters?"

\--

_Ten years earlier..._

The Baron glared down at Tarvek, who did his best not to quail. He'd been vehemently denying the Baron's accusations of espionage - this was ridiculous, _everyone_ was spying for their families! Just because Tarvek had been more _successful -_

Breaking into the vault had been for Gil's sake, anyway. And not even his idea...

His friend evidently hadn't been caught yet, but that was no surprise. Gil probably knew the various hidey-holes available on the Baron's still-unfinished airship better than anyone.

"We'll see how truthful you're being," said Baron Wulfenbach in dark tones that made it clear how _not_ truthful he thought Tarvek was being. He waved over a guard. "Search Prince Sturmvoraus' quarters," he commanded. _"Every inch."_

Tarvek felt the blood drain from his face. The nook behind his lamp was good, but not _that_ good. He couldn't have even made a secret cache at all if not for Gil's knowledge of how the ship's paneling worked. And since the Baron had _designed_ the ship -

He was doomed.

While his room was being searched, Tarvek sat there, counting the heartbeats left between him and the end. Would this count as the kind of misbehavior that would, as a hostage, get him killed? No, of course not, the Baron couldn't seriously think this was so severe a transgression as that -

A guard returned with a sheaf of papers Tarvek recognized, with one last trickle of misery, as the contents of his hiding space. Baron Wulfenbach leafed through them, face made of stone.

"Well," the Baron said thunderously, "you've certainly wandered very far. And not on your own."

Tarvek wouldn't implicate Gil. He _wouldn't_.

"Where is Gilgamesh Holzfaller?" the Baron demanded of the guard.

"Haven't found him yet, Herr Baron."

The Baron scowled even harder, if that were possible. _"Find him,"_ he growled. "Search the unfinished parts of the ship."

Tarvek suppressed a flinch.

"And as for _you -"_

He did flinch, then.

"Madame Von Pinn will be here shortly." _Oh, thank goodness -_ "To take you to collect your belongings."

Tarvek blinked. "H-Herr Baron?"

"You are expelled from my school," he rumbled. "Effective immediately."

He stared. "But - but I'm a hostage!"

"Evidently not a good one if your family is still using you as a spy!"

"But _everyone's_ spying for their family!"

"Not everyone," the Baron's retort barely registered amongst Tarvek's spiking panic, "is so _successful_ at it! I will not have you on my ship!"

Before Tarvek could stammer out any more protests, Von Pinn opened the Baron's office door. "Herr Baron," she said in her growling voice. Oh, Tarvek would _miss_ that voice! "They have found Master Gilgamesh."

_Oh, no -_

"Bring him in," the Baron said grimly. "And take Prince Sturmvoraus to collect his things."

"You can't expel Gil too!" Tarvek burst out. _He's got nowhere to go. I can't bring him home with me yet_. Sturmhalten would destroy Gil.

"I'm not going to," the Baron said with obvious reluctance. "Especially since he has _no one to spy for."_

Tarvek was relieved, but couldn't help feeling some slight resentment. The vault had been _Gil's_ idea, they were looking for _Gil's_ family -

But he'd gone along with it. He'd picked the Baron's lock, and gone through his own family's files.

"Come, Prince Tarvek," Von Pinn said, gentle as she ever sounded, hand on his shoulder.

Tarvek stood, his head swimming. Expelled. He'd been _expelled_ . They were sending him _home_ , back to -

He walked out the door just as a guard appeared with Gil. "Tarvek!" he exclaimed. "They said you've been expelled!"

"I have," Tarvek said hollowly.

"No no no, you can't, I'll tell the Baron it was my idea -"

"It doesn't matter," Tarvek cut him off quickly. "They looked behind my lamp."

"Oh." Gil looked so terribly bereft. There were still shining tear tracks on his cheeks from finding the pig farmer file -

"Listen," Tarvek said urgently, even as Von Pinn began guiding him away, "I think there's more to you than they're saying -"

Gil just looked miserable. "I'll come say goodbye before you leave, okay? I won't let -"

Just what Gil wouldn't allow, Tarvek didn't hear, since Von Pinn picked up the pace, and Gil disappeared into the Baron's office.

Miserable himself, and avoiding all his fellow - his _former_ fellow students' curious eyes, Tarvek collected his things. Von Pinn deflected all their probing questions, and Tarvek was grateful, which just made him more upset. There would be no Von Pinn to protect him at home.

By the time he was finished packing, Gil still hadn't returned. Tarvek looked forlornly around his empty room. Where would Gil sleep now, when another student maliciously sabotaged his own bed?

Not to mention how comforting it had been for Tarvek to have the one person in the world he felt like he could trust be there whenever he woke up from a nightmare.

Even though Tarvek couldn't tell him what they were about. Gil had enough bad dreams of his own.

Another guard would take Tarvek to the airship hangar. He stared up at Von Pinn, at a loss.

Clucking softly, the tall construct crouched down and gave Tarvek a hug that almost made him finally burst into tears. Almost.

"Have courage, young prince," she said in his ear. "You are stronger than you know."

He swallowed. "Thank you, Madame Von Pinn," he choked out.

She released him and nodded to the guard, expression fierce once again.

The guard clamped a hand on Tarvek's shoulder, but he shrugged it off easily (he'd be learning _real_ smoke knight techniques soon, he knew) and reached into Andy's crate, cradling the soft, curious midmoth in his arms.

Gil still wasn't back.

Finally the guard led him through the ship to the hangar. One the way, Tarvek wasn't sure if he wanted to look around and drink in as much of this fascinating (in so many ways) place as possible, or shut his eyes so he wouldn't have to see what he was losing.

(Though what he was _really_ losing still wasn't there to be seen.)

In the end Tarvek did neither, stumbling along with the guard and looking frantically between the passing surroundings and his own shoes. He buried his chin in Andy's fur.

Finally they reached the hangar, and Tarvek slowly made his way toward the airship bound for Sturmhalten. Home.

_"TARVEK! WAIT!"_

A messy-haired blur appeared, running full-pelt through the hangar. Two guards were in hot pursuit, and they caught Gil again before he could reach Tarvek.

"Gil," he said, voice hoarse.

"I couldn't let you leave without saying goodbye!" Gil called plaintively.

"Goodbye," Tarvek said miserably, and turned to leave before he could start to cry. Despite himself, he stopped one last time, and looked over his shoulder.  

Gil was still struggling against the guards. Tarvek was just about to lift his hand in a final farewell when he broke free.

No eight year old should have been able to run that fast, but Gil did, all the way across the hangar. He grabbed Tarvek in a tight hug that made his breath catch. "I'll write you," Gil promised fervently. "Every day."

"Me too," Tarvek swore in a choked voice, nodding frantically, even as the sympathetic but exasperated guard finally tugged them apart again.

Tarvek was pulled onto the airship, and it took off almost as soon as both of his feet were on it. Hugging Andy close, he took one last look behind him.

Still standing in the hanger, Gil was waving.

The doors closed before Tarvek could wave back.

\--

Colette looked between them, surprised. "You know each other?"

Gil and Tarvek both nodded without looking away from each other.

"...Well then!" Colette said, sounding distressed and as if she was trying very hard not to be. "How splendid! Please, Prince Sturmvoraus, sit down!"

Gil coughed suddenly. "Yeah, shit, um- sit down, Tarvek. This is, uh, Wooster. He's here from England."

Wooster waved weakly. "Your Highness."

It escaped no one that Gil had still called him Tarvek. Or that they hadn't stopped staring at each other even while Tarvek took the proffered seat.

"So, we'll all be attending university together," Colette said hopefully. "That should be...fun!"

Gil stood abruptly and came over to Tarvek, pulling him up by the arm. Tarvek squawked, but didn't resist being dragged out of the cafe. After ten years, apparently he was still in the habit of allowing Gil to drag him wherever he pleased.

"Au revoir," he heard Wooster call after them dryly.

Gil didn't bring him far, just to a secluded alley a few buildings down.

"Lovely venue," Tarvek drawled.

"It's no unfinished section of an airship, but it'll do," Gil said, sounding breathless. "Holy _shit_ , Tar."

No one had called him that in a decade. "Quite," he agreed.

"So...you really did write to me?" Gil asked nervously.

"For months," Tarvek admitted. "Even when you never replied, I kept trying." At the time, it hadn't occurred to him that his family might have intercepted Gil's letters and not passed them back on their way, though it should have. But it was obvious now that they had, in addition to preventing his own from reaching their destination.

"Me too," Gil said, softly. "I never got anything from you but I kept thinking mail from Sturmhalten might just be really slow."

"It didn't occur to me at the time," Tarvek said ruefully, voicing his own previous train of thought, "but I wouldn't be surprised to learn my family had been intercepting anything sent from Castle Wulfenbach."

Gil paused for a moment before, sounding very much eight years old again, he asked, "Were they angry with you?"

"Only that I got caught," Tarvek grumbled. "Hardly a reason to turn away another potential source of information on the Baron."

"So..." Gil said slowly. "You would have used me to spy _for_ you?"

"No!" Tarvek protested immediately. "I was already afraid the Baron might expel you for helping me before. I wouldn't have asked for anything more when I wasn't even there there to protect you!"

Gil scowled at him. "I don't need protecting."

Obviously not. Gil was as tall as Tarvek and even broader, friends with the Master's favorite granddaughter, and apparently a strong spark.

"No," he agreed. "Not anymore. When did you break through?"

Gil looked suddenly self-conscious. "Not long after you left," he confessed.

Swallowing, Tarvek said, "Same time as me, then." He mastered the rush of emotion he'd just experienced and continued, "I always said you'd be a spark." And knew it for certain after learning of his true parentage.

"You did," Gil said, flashing him a wide, familiar smile, before suddenly looking around the rather unpleasant alleyway they stood in. "...My apartment isn't far from here."

"I should really say goodbye to Mademoiselle Voltaire-"

"She won't mind," Gil said confidently. "Come on. We've got a lot of catching up to do."

**Author's Note:**

> Tarvek thinks his family intercepted his letters. It wasn't them, which is why he didn't think of it- taking the letters and just keeping them isn't really their style. It's Klaus's.


End file.
